1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a female terminal fitting and to a production method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,811 discloses a female terminal fitting including a resilient contact piece in a rectangular tube. A tab of a mating terminal inserted into the rectangular tube is resiliently sandwiched between the resilient contact piece and a receiving plate of the rectangular tube. The rectangular tube includes a supporting plate supporting the resilient contact piece. First and second side plates extend substantially at a right angle from left and right side edges of the supporting plate. The receiving plate extends substantially at a right angle from the extending end edge of the first side plate and an outer plate extends substantially at a right angle from the extending end edge of the second side plate and is placed on the outer surface of the receiving plate.
A part of the outer plate is cut to form a cut portion, and an opening edge of the cut portion is struck to project outwardly by the plate thickness of the outer plate, thereby forming a locking projection. When the terminal fitting is inserted into a terminal accommodating chamber of a housing, a locking lance formed to extend along the inner wall of the terminal accommodating chamber enters the cut portion to be engaged with the locking projection for retaining the terminal fitting.
In the terminal fitting of U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,811, the sum of a dimension corresponding to the plate thickness of the outer plate obtained by forming the cut portion in the outer plate and a dimension corresponding to the plate thickness of the outer plate obtained by forming the locking projection by striking is ensured as an engagement margin with the locking lance. However, since the engagement margin by the locking projection out of this engagement margin corresponding to twice the plate thickness of the outer plate portion is obtained as a projection from the outer surface of the rectangular tube, the terminal fitting becomes bulky in a resilient deforming direction of the resilient contact piece.
The present invention was developed in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to improve the design of the terminal fitting.